Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 62
>Chapter Title: Night Talk
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"Anyone there?" Li Huowang's shout echoed continuously in the extremely empty surroundings.
Thoroughly perplexed, he looked around to the left and right. He found himself standing on a wooden bridge, with nothing but pitch blackness ahead, behind, and on all sides.
Li Huowang took a deep breath and lifted his foot to keep walking forward. The wooden bridge beneath him creaked with every step.
He didn't know how long he walked before he sensed something moving in the distance. His whole body jolted, and he rushed quickly toward it.
But when he got close and finally saw what the thing was, his body abruptly halted. It was Li Zhi's household guardian spirit.
The once palm-sized clay sculpture had grown three times larger than Li Huowang's body. Accompanied by the sound of stones grinding against each other, it slowly turned its head toward him. Its pupils held no trace of black, just a terrifying, milky white.
"This isn't a wooden bridge! I'm standing on someone else's rafters!" Li Huowang realized instantly.
A creaking sound rang out as the layers of red cords on the household guardian spirit split open. Countless clay sculpture hands reached out from within, dripping dust as they clawed toward Li Huowang.
Li Huowang turned to flee, but a massive red veil instantly draped over him, completely enveloping his body.
"Don't look." An extremely thin, ethereal female voice spoke up.
"Hah!" Drenched in cold sweat, Li Huowang jolted awake. He quickly looked around and saw no household guardian spirit, no red veil—it had all just been a dream.
He glanced down at Bai Lingmiao beside him, pulled the blanket up to cover her shoulders, got out of bed, and opened the window to look outside.
The moon was still hanging in the sky, so it seemed he hadn't slept for long.
Gazing at the black tiles outside, Li Huowang recalled the events from yesterday.
That Second God covered in the red veil had clearly wanted to say something to him, but Li Zhi had unwittingly interrupted.
"What exactly did she want to say? Why wouldn't she let me look at the household guardian spirit?" Li Huowang pondered, his brows furrowed tight.
This Second God had always been silent, neither eating nor drinking. Compared to the unusually affable Li Zhi, she seemed extremely mysterious.
For such a person to suddenly speak to him, there must be some special meaning behind it.
"What could she have to tell me in secret, something Li Zhi can't know about? Does Li Zhi want to harm me?"
He had planned to find Li Zhi to try jumping the gods, but with this sudden development, Li Huowang hesitated. Truth be told, they weren't that close.
He considered seeking other spirit mediums, but even if he found them, there was no guarantee they'd be more trustworthy.
Since he had to find one anyway, a familiar one might be better.
"I need to ask the Second God alone about what's really going on." Li Huowang made up his mind quietly.
He glanced once more at the pitch-black sky, then turned, donned his blood-colored Daoist robes, and headed out.
Li Zhi's fellow villagers' few flat-roofed houses weren't far apart; Li Zhi and his group were staying nearby.
In the pitch-black house, Li Huowang walked silently, feeling his way toward Li Zhi's place.
"Creeeak~" The door with the inverted fu character pasted on it slowly opened, and a small glowing stone gently rolled inside.
The dim fluorescence lit up the room. Great God Li Zhi lay sprawled on the bed snoring away, while the Second God under the red veil stood rigidly beside it like a piece of clothing.
Hearing the noise, the Second God silently turned the red veil toward Li Huowang. She stood there as if waiting for something.
Seeing this scene in the dead of night was honestly quite chilling.
"Do I really have to go out alone with this thing right now?" Li Huowang hesitated at that moment.
But remembering what she had said to him, he steeled his resolve and beckoned gently with his hand.
The Second God actually moved. Like a ghost, she slowly floated toward the doorway.
As she advanced, Li Huowang retreated, one stepping forward and one back, until they stopped outside in the courtyard.
The hazy moonlight from the half-moon overhead slightly eased Li Huowang's extremely tense mood.
The Second God under the red veil slowly drew close again, very close, so near that Li Huowang's words made the red veil tremble faintly.
"What did you want to say yesterday?"
Her extremely long black fingernails slowly lifted. Under Li Huowang's astonished gaze, they gently sliced the fingertip of her other hand.
Then, using the dark red blood that flowed out, she began slowly writing words on her own red veil.
“Beware. You… are Heart-Su. Immortal.”
"What are you two doing!" An explosive reprimand rang out, and the black blood on the red veil rapidly absorbed into it.
Li Huowang had just retreated two steps when he saw the sullen-faced Li Zhi, barefoot and pattering over. He grabbed the Second God tightly around the waist.
"What do you want? This is my wife!!"
Hearing the commotion from the house, Li Huowang quickly thought it over and spoke up.
"Nothing much, I was just a bit curious about sister-in-law's appearance."
The wary Li Zhi eyed Li Huowang up and down, then like he was staking his claim, lifted a corner of the red veil, stuck his head in, and planted a flurry of kisses.
As the red veil swayed, by the moonlight, Li Huowang vaguely caught sight of something.
"That's... scales?"
Li Zhi then pulled his head back out from under the red veil and smacked his lips, licking at the yellowish-green slime at the corners of his mouth.
"Remember this! This is my wife. You being single is your own fault—who told you to become a Daoist! If you've got the guts, leave the order!"
With that, without waiting for Li Huowang to argue, he took the Second God's pale hand with its long black nails and turned to head back inside.
Scales, yellowish-green slime—these two images flashed repeatedly in his mind. Just what was this Second God?
When the utterly baffled Li Huowang returned to his room, he found Bai Lingmiao already awakened. She knelt on the bed, sleepily rubbing her eyes.
"What happened? Did something occur?"
Li Huowang said nothing, blew out the relit oil lamp, and said, "Nothing. Go back to sleep."
"Beware? I'm a Heart-Su Immortal?"
Lying on the bed, Li Huowang mulled over the Second God's fragmented words. "What is a Heart-Su Immortal? And what am I supposed to beware of?"
The next day, when Li Huowang woke and arrived in the main hall, he saw Li Zhi drinking porridge.
His right hand firmly gripped the Second God's as he spoke to his fellow villager.
"Fellow villager, thanks for taking care of us. How about this: I'll invite a household guardian spirit for you. I'll make it cheap—thirty copper coins, how's that?"
Li Zhi stopped there because he spotted Li Huowang. At that moment, his expression held none of its previous affability.
(End of chapter)